


The Things Dragons Find

by ilyena_sylph



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: F/F, First Pass, OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:38:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a dragon goes diving, almost anything can be found!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Things Dragons Find

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Slave2tehtink on lj/dw, for the HelptheSouth fandom auction.

Brith had waded out into the surf, deep enough that the swells made her half-extended wings bounce slightly, and Becca lay on the beach watching her, having taken advantage of the three-day lack of Threadfall to come home to Big Island. It was so nice not to be up in the perpetual chill of Fort for a little while, and she was grateful to her parents for the chance. They, like a few others here, had refused to leave when there were the volcanic caves everywhere to shelter in from Threadfall, and the fishing and kelp were so good. Mother had said furiously that they had had enough of being packed like sardines in the Northeast megalopolis on Earth and she wasn't going back, and that had been the end of that. Becca had been born on Pern, and didn't want to imagine the kind of place her parents had come from. She knew it bothered the Weyrleaders to have them so far out, but it wasn't like dragons couldn't go _between_! Her dragon's green tail flicked under the water, her wings shivering slightly, and a ripple of laughter poured across their bond.

She'd looked for Megan just after she'd landed, but her best friend and partner since before she'd Impressed had been nowhere to be found. Which meant she was out in her skiff, investigating something in the waters around the island with her pod, and would be back when she decided to be. Brith probably could have found her, but the better idea was just to settle in on shore and keep a lookout. Megan was always glad to see her, but she was decidedly single-minded when she was working. And why her thoughts were wandering to her girlfriend when her dragon was nearly giggling at something, she had no idea. It wasn't as though Megan giggled!

"What is it, Brith?" she asked, pushing up on her elbows to look towards her partner.

 _The fish tickle me,_ Brith answered, still nearly giggling as she shifted on her feet and flared her wings.

"Aren't they lucky you're not hungry, then!"

 _They are too small to work that hard for._ Her dragon's reply was indignant, even as she poked her nose under the water to investigate the fish more closely.

"Yes, dear," Becca said affectionately, stretching back down on the warm leather she'd laid out on the sand.

She had almost fallen asleep in the sun when Brith's sudden flare of happiness struck her. _Dolphins!_ her green said, explaining. _Dolphins are here... with the boat, and her!_

Becca bounced up onto her feet, looking out across the waves -- just as one of the local pod launched out of the water, jumping over the stern of the single-sail skiff. Megan's flax-blonde hair flashed in the sun from where she worked the tiller, and Becca flung both arms up in a delighted wave, her mouth starting to ache with her grin even though there was no way Megan could see her from out there. One sun-browned arm waved back, and then Megan's attention obviously went back to the skiff.

 _You are glad to see her,_ Brith said, her snout dripping water as she turned around to look at her.

"Of course I am, silly dragon," Becca agreed, watching Megan turn the skiff to come towards them instead of the overhung docking bay.

 _It is good. She is good for you._

Sometimes, Becca thought amusedly, Brith had a gift for understatement.

***

Megan was always pleased when Fall and duties let Becca and Brith come to visit her. The pod enjoyed flipping around the green dragon, or carefully brushing against the wing spars, while she just enjoyed spending time with Becca. She guided the skiff carefully, as her pod was being silly and acrobatic now, showing off for the dragon that appreciated them more than many humans did these days.

Brith folded her wings over her back and turned her head, looking at Becca insistently, and her girlfriend waded out, wrapping her hand around the first neck-ridge instead of climbing on -- sensible, given how little she was wearing -- and Brith started to swim through the water, coming out to meet her. Why, when they were going to need to ground the skiff anyway, Megan wasn't sure, but she liked to see the green swimming. Brith swam up, dolphins leaping out of the water and diving back down close, and Becca spluttered as a massive swell of water hit her in the face. "Okay," she grumbled even as she let go of Brith to swim over, "which one got me?"

"I think it was Dara," Megan said with a laugh, moving to offer a steadying hand so Becca could come up on the skiff. "Brith's looking pleased," Megan added, that sparkle in the dragon eyes giving away the fact she was amused at her rider's plight.

"Brith is enjoying the sun," Becca agreed as she carefully hauled herself up onto the skiff, not wanting to risk tipping it, "and she likes your pod. Besides, the fish up by the shore were tickling her. I think she wanted the pod to eat some of them, but then she decided she'd rather --" her voice cut off as a slap of water hit both of them. She turned around to yell at her dragon, and only the flit of a tail-tip was showing as Brith's green body finished disappearing under the water. "-- dive."

Megan had to wrap her free hand around the tiller from the water displacement, quite swiftly, but it did not keep her from laughing at the dragon's antics. Of course the entire pod had to then make a showy leap and dive to follow the green, adding to the water's disturbance.

Becca laughed, too, then got closer to her girlfriend. She avoided the central sail, reaching out to wrap an arm around her waist and hold on. “Good to see you,” she murmured, low and pleased, and kissed her cheek. “Any bets on what they come back up with this time?”

"I think the pod's cleared the floor here," Megan said. "But maybe the last storm swept something of interest in." The dolphineer got the tiller under control, and the skiff headed decidedly for shore once more, which allowed her to rest a hand on Becca's back. "I've missed you, and so has the pod."

"Sea storms do some weird things," Becca said, shrugging. "Or else they won't find anything, and we'll have to cheer Brith up. Mmm... you did, huh?" She was grinning as she asked the question, though, and leaning back into Megan's hand.

“The pod will find something for her then, I'm certain," Megan promised, before she nodded at the rest of that. "Always do, even though I know you're protecting us all."

"The pod will find something for her, I'm certain then," Megan promised, before she nodded at the rest of that. "Always do, even though I know you're protecting us all."

Becca's smile shifted from a grin to something quiet and pleased as she nodded. Then they were into shallow water, and she ducked back under the sail to get to the prow, glancing back at Megan and waiting for the flick of her hand that said it was time to jump out and pull. She did, and the wind helped ground the skiff. Not a dragonlength from the hide she'd thrown down, either, she noticed, and she lifted her voice a little. "Nice eye!"

"Have to have it, or the fins pick on me too much. Doesn't help they can 'see' better than even a dragon!" Megan told her, getting the skiff moved well above tide line. She grabbed the case with her meat rolls and bread in it, glad the wherry-hide was completely water proofed, so she could share a meal with her girlfriend without having to do too much scrounging.

"Anything I can grab?" Becca asked before they headed to her hide, waiting just long enough to get an answer. Out in the water, Brith's head -- and neck, and forelimbs -- broke the water with a massive splash, wings opening and flinging water everywhere as they beat and the dolphins leapt around her, squealing their high-pitched happy noises. Becca stared out, trying to see what her dragon had clutched in her front claws. _**Found** something!_ her dragon's voice broke into her mind, _Heavy something, in a net!_

"She says she's got something heavy in a net," Becca relayed to Megan as she watched Brith deciding that she wasn't going to get clear of the water to fly, and instead she was going to swim. Swim **fast** , too, she noted as her dragon dropped low in the water to keep from dragging and both hind legs and tail moved like a dolphin's tail.

"She's the best swimmer among her kind," Megan praised. "So many of them want to lash the tail out of sync with the legs," she added, before placing the food pack on the hide so she could go back to where the dragon would beach. The dolphins, sensibly, stayed back from the sand and in waters deep enough to be safe, but their chorus of 'found it' kept echoing over the lap of the waves.

 _Megan says you swim very well,_ Becca sent to her partner, whose eyes promptly went almost entirely blue with delight.

Brith's answer was a low, smug _Dolphins showed me,_ even as she held that one gripping fore-paw up against her chest as she waded the rest of the way in. _Like to swim with them._

The dolphins started cheering in their high pitched squeaks and calls, as Brith arrived on the shore where Megan and Becca met her.

"What did you find, Brith?" Megan asked, reaching up to guide the net-wrapped bundle down. "Becca, is that... plas-film?" she asked, startled by the odd texture of the material under the net. The net itself was of the very rare but durable plas-cord early colonists had used, and half-covered in small barnacles and other bottom-dwellers.

Becca reached out, running her fingers between the cords, wiping the stuff clean enough to see it, to feel it. “It feels like the maps of the calderas where the Weyrs are and should go next, so... Yeah. It has to be. That means this has been down there a _while_... Okay, Brith, put it down, let us try and get it open.”

Brith snorted and put the net down, then walked around behind them to be out of the way of the sun, poking her head down between theirs, tipped to look down with one multi-faceted eye.

Megan laughed at the inquisitive dragon, bringing one hand up to stroke along the underside of the draconic muzzle before she knelt next to the net, looking for where it fastened. She did not want to cut the net, after all. It was too useful and durable to be wasted that way, when she had no idea how to mend the fibers properly. "Whoever tied it was no seaman," she growled when she did find the knots.

Becca scratched at the underside of Brith’s jaw lightly, keeping out of Megan’s way. “Let me know where I can grab,” she offered, watching her work. Brith shifted, stretching her wings -- and water rained down on both women. “Brith,” Becca complained, more out of habit than anything. It wasn’t as though she had dry skin anywhere.

"What is it?!" was whistled imperiously from the water, the biggest of the dolphins nearly standing on tail-tip to do it.

"I'll tell you in a minute, Cairo!" Megan called back, finally getting the pattern of the knots. "You pull here and here, and I think we'll have it undone," she guided Becca, pointing to the parts for her to grab.

Becca reached down, pulling at both spots. The net came open and they were able to pull it into falling to the sides, despite the barnacles on it trying to hold it in the shape it had been. The plas inside looked like it was jsut folded over, and she reached to find an edge and pull, trying to be careful. This much plas... there could be a lot of uses for that.

Megan assisted, very much a waste-not, want-not kind of person as all Pernese should be. Despite who knew how many years under the waves, the plas-film was in good shape, and revealed its offerings only with both of then undoing the folds. At first, both women thought they saw rocks, until the sun glinted on one, showing a sparkle where the rocky covering had been knocked free of the smoke colored gem within it.

Becca blinked, reaching down, and pulled one stone out, turning it to catch the light again. “...diamond,” she said after a second, “black diamond, but **big** , a lot bigger than the usual stuff on the beach, or even down in the mines... But why?”

"I don't know," Megan said, puzzled by it. "Maybe they were meant for those cutter machines the miners were always coddling along?" she asked, having heard once that the heat the rock-cutters made was focused through gemstones. That didn't explain why the machines had stopped working eventually, because there were plenty of baubles in the mines around Pern. It was metal that was distressingly short.

"Tell tell tell!" the pod called.

"Pretty rocks!" Megan yelled back at them, to a lot of water slapping displeasure. Computer chips brought bounties, after all, and made Megan happy.

“Maybe?” Becca said, shrugging a little as Brith poked her head down closer.

 _Not good?_ Brith asked, faintly mournful, and Becca shook her head, turning to wrap her arms around her dragon’s neck. “No, Brith, it’s **very** good! Once we clean that net up, you found it, so Megan can have it, and you have to be a senior fisher to have one of those, normally! And the plas, that’ll protect — “

“Whatever you need it for, if I’m getting the net,” Megan said, and Becca shook her head.

“I don’t want to cut it down,” she protested, “so it’s got to be something big. What about... could you make a cover for the sail with it?”

Megan considered, then nodded slowly. "Probably, but it's far too valuable for that. Can't it be used at the Weyr for something important?" she asked her girlfriend, while she considered the uncut gemstones. They wouldn't have much in the way of worth to her, but maybe they could trade them to people who were settled in their holds already and wanting pretties for their keeping.

“D’muray would know,” Becca said, stroking her hand on the plas. That would help her, if she brought back something useful from one of these trips... “We’ll find out, once we go back.”

 _Megan wants the net?_ Brith asked, sounding considerably cheered. _Good. Going to go swim more now!_

The dolphins chattered eagerly, disappointment lost, as the dragon came back to them. Megan gathered two parts of the net, waiting for Becca to do the same, so they could move the find to safety.

"I'm sure the miners will be glad for such big rocks to practice on," she told Becca. "And some that Hold are wanting decorative things."

"...truth," Becca said, smiling as they put the net down near her hide, well up away from the water... and then she twisted and pounced at Megan, toppling them both down onto the hide. "Now. Didn't you say you missed me?"

Megan laughed and pulled both arms around her lovely green rider. "I did," she purred, pushing up to kiss her firmly.

In the water, the dolphins took up a game of 'jump-the-dragon', and Brith's eyes sparkled with blue delight and green calm as her rider's happy emotions pulsed through their bond.


End file.
